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Google Book Search Settlement Withdrawn

Last week the Google Book Search settlement was officially withdrawn from the US court where it was being decided, “in light of the parties’ plans to modify the Settlement Agreement”. With over 400 filings in response to the settlement the final document might end up looking significantly different. Brandon Butler, Legal and Policy Fellow for the Association of Research Libraries, has created a handy guide to the filings, summarizing the key reasons for support and objection and naming some of the more interesting “key supporters” (Cornell, Stanford University Libraries, American Association of People with Disabilities) “filers with reservations” (American Association of University Professors, American Library Association) and “key opponents” (Amazon, ProQuest, the Republics of German and France) of the settlement. There are a few interesting cases (faculty of the University of California, Committee on Institutional Cooperation, Charles Nesson et al. from Harvard) where objections or reservations are coming from institutions that have contracts with Google to scan their collections. Does make one wonder whether the people that made the agreements are having second thoughts, or whether there is just some internal disagreements.